


In Which Everyone Involved Is A Disaster Of Epic Proportions

by ursus_mari



Series: Miraculous AU [1]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Episode: s01 Animan, F/F, F/M, M/M, Miraculous Ladybug AU, arthur pendragon is a disaster, dumbass teenagers engaging in shenanigans, gwen is even more of a disaster
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:42:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24705532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ursus_mari/pseuds/ursus_mari
Summary: Gwen, smitten with Arthur, is having trouble asking him out. Or talking to him at all, really. Merlin, always willing to help out his best friend, asks Arthur out for her.Unfortunately for both of them, Arthur's sort of head over heels for Merlin. Misunderstandings ensue.Given that they're both disasters around their crush, Arthur and Gwen enlist Morgana and Merlin respectively to guide them through the date.Morgana's having a great time right up until Gwen confesses to be in love with her.Alternatively: the zoo scene in Animan featuring Merlin characters.
Relationships: Gwen/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Gwen/Morgana (Merlin), Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: Miraculous AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1786087
Comments: 4
Kudos: 76





	In Which Everyone Involved Is A Disaster Of Epic Proportions

**Author's Note:**

> So I've never done this before? Please tell me if I've gotten something wrong.
> 
> If you haven't seen Miraculous Ladybug, you don't need too much background, but you do probably need to know about akumas for brief bits to make sense. The villain preys on negative emotion and sends akumas, evil little black butterflies, that allow him to twist that person to do his bidding, giving them powers related to their frustration to take the power items from the heroes. It’s not hugely important, but nice for context of why there’s a butterfly.
> 
> I'll do more with this later, probably, and I have a whole mess of notes on the larger story and universe and whatnot, but I really wanted to write this scene, so. I did.
> 
> I should probably note for anyone that has seen MLB that Arthur is definitely Adrien and Merlin is definitely Marinette here, but I reversed the love square, so they took on different roles for this scene. And I changed Animan's trigger because I think a zookeeper getting akumatized because some dumbass teenager thinks he can beat a panther in a race is stupid.
> 
> It occurs to me that I should probably note that this does feature some dialogue from the episode

  
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” Arthur mutters, looking at his clothes with trepidation. They’re his school clothes, but maybe he should have changed? How hard should he have tried, exactly? Is this a date? It feels like a date. “I can’t talk around Merlin, this is going to be a disaster.” 

Morgana snorts in his ear. “You’re a disaster alright. But you’ll be fine this time because you’ve got me telling you what to do and preventing you from making a total ass of yourself per the usual. Merlin’ll love you.” 

“You’re not exactly charming either, you know,” Arthur snipes, because needing his sister to coach him through a conversation with his crush is _humiliating_. He stops before saying anything else, because someone is approaching and he doesn’t want to get caught talking to himself like an idiot, especially not by Merlin. But the person that’s approaching is Gwen? Alone? “Morgana,” he mutters, because this is alarming enough to risk being seen as a crazy person, “where’s Merlin?” 

“I don’t know,” Morgana says slowly, and Arthur can practically see her frown. 

“Hey,” Gwen says breathlessly, looking very pretty in a pink dress with her cheeks flushed, but there’s still no sign of her best friend. 

“Hey,” Arthur says. “Er, isn’t Merlin with you?” 

(Merlin, from within the bushes on the other side of the walkway, also sporting an earpiece, hisses, “tell him you’ll both be better off without me!”) 

“We’ll be both better off without me!” Gwen blurts, and promptly turns red. “That is-- I mean--” 

“Huh?” Arthur is getting a bad feeling about this. 

“Without- without _him_ , I mean, we don’t need Merlin to hang out at the zoo!” Gwen stammers. 

“Of course we do!” Morgana hisses, affronted. 

“Of course we-- er,” Arthur blurts, reacting to Morgana and stopping himself before he says something rude, revealing, or both by accident. “Um. I mean. He was supposed to come, wasn’t he? Should we wait?” 

(“Tell him you want to be alone with him,” Merlin encourages from the bushes.) 

“Not yet!” Gwen whispers. 

(Merlin sighs.) 

“I’m sorry?” 

“Um, I-- yeah, we’ll wait.” 

(“No, don’t wait for me, I’m not coming!” Merlin moans.) 

Arthur and Gwen stand together and feel very, very uncomfortable. Arthur should have known something was wrong; Merlin volunteering to spend time with him was too good to be true. Still, he should have expected that Merlin would be late, he always is, and Merlin did invite him, so he holds out hope that Merlin will show before it all gets too painfully awkward.  
  


* * *

  
Meanwhile, a zookeeper despairs over his animals’ living conditions and feels his heart break as his panther stalks in a cage too small, and a masked man sends a black butterfly...  
  


* * *

  
Later, as he and Gwen sit on a bench and wait, Arthur is forced to concede defeat. “He’s not coming, is he?” The realization sinks a pit in his stomach. He’d thought- he’d thought maybe he’d finally managed to show Merlin that he wasn’t an ass, just awkward. He’d thought Merlin had actually wanted to spend time with him. 

“Oh, no, it’s just…” Gwen bites her lip. 

(“Oh, dammit, he looks like a kicked puppy,” Merlin huffs. “Okay, repeat after me: he is, but I wanted to take this opportunity to…) 

“He is, but I wanted to take this opportunity to…” 

(“Tell you that I love you, Arthur,” Merlin says, ignoring the weird twist in his gut.) 

“Tell you that I-- love?” Gwen squeaks. 

Arthur stares. 

“Um! Yes! I wanted to tell you that I love, um…” 

(“Go on, tell him that it’s him!”) 

“...Y-you...r sister Morgana?” 

Arthur chokes. Morgana screeches in his ear, “what?!” 

(“What? Gwen, no!”) 

“You have a crush on Morgana?” Arthur grins, because he can see this working out. “Cool!” 

“No, not cool!” Morgana shrieks. “She-- I--” 

“I could set up a date, if you’d like?” Arthur offers, ignoring his sister’s panicking in his ear. 

“Um,” Gwen says, looking quite pink. 

“Arthur Pendragon, you will do no such thing!” Morgana snaps, sounding very flustered. Good, it can be her turn for a bit. See how she likes being laughed at and thrown off guard because of a romantic situation. “You can’t just-- ugh!” 

(“Well, that took a turn,” Merlin says. “You’re better off with Morgana anyway, Lord knows what you see in Arthur.” 

_“Merlin!”_ ) 

It’s lucky for everyone involved when the panther shows up. 

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/ursus-mari) @ursus-mari! You can give me prompts, if you'd like.


End file.
